


Reflections

by Weeblswobl



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-31
Updated: 2011-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-22 01:10:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weeblswobl/pseuds/Weeblswobl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>El reminisces as she prepares a birthday gift for Neal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflections

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I'd finally get around to posting. Written before we knew the real Peter and Neal backstory. Hope you enjoy! :)

Neal Caffrey hates guns.

It’s one of the things she loves about him.  She’s found plenty of other things to love about Neal Caffrey, the living, breathing person, qualities that are a far cry from the imagined attributes of the phantom that has haunted her life and Peter’s for the past seven years.

She pulls the silver frame out of the box and smiles with affection.  Peter could recite Neal’s birth date in his sleep, but it never occurred to her husband that said anniversary of that particular day is fast approaching.   Neal had become part of their lives now, in a very real way, and it had fallen to her to see that his birthday was appropriately celebrated.  She had thought the birthday cards would stop once Neal had begun working with Peter, but the last was joined by a small gift.  She glances over at the framed pencil sketch over the credenza, marveling once again at how accurately Neal had captured the sparkle in Peter’s eyes when he had _that_ look on his face.

Anyone in her situation, she knew, would resent Neal for becoming the single biggest focus of her husband’s life.  Dana urged her to put her foot down when Peter came to her with the idea of Neal’s consultant status. Neal himself had asked her that same question once. Why was she so supportive of the person that had stolen her husband from her for the better part of three years?  For once in his life, the great Neal Caffrey was quite humbled when she answered simply and honestly, “Because you gave him back to me.  Twice.”

She thinks about the little scar several inches below Peter’s left shoulder.  It had been one of the few face-to-face meetings before Peter made the arrest that sent Neal to prison. Peter’s team had raided a warehouse and Neal’s partner at the time had taken a shot at her husband at near point-blank range.  She remembers Peter’s incredulous excitement, as the med tech stitched up what had been only a surface wound.  “You should have seen him, El. He doused the guy with a fire extinguisher.”  She didn’t know what to make of the idea that Peter’s quarry had any interest in saving his life.    

She takes the glass out of the picture frame she is holding, and lines it up with the photo she has finally decided on.  It is a photo of Peter and Neal, mugging for the camera at the Hughes’ backyard barbecue.  She turns the photo over, and picks up a fine-tipped marker.

Though Peter had never been in any real danger, the second time scared her more than the first.  He was supposed to meet with an informant in the warehouse district in connection with a counterfeit ring they had been trying to collar for months.  A bouquet of flowers had arrived for Peter that morning with a card that said simply, “It’s a trap. –Neal” The swat team had discovered plastic explosives rigged to the door that Peter was supposed to have used to gain access to an apartment above.

She finally got up the nerve to ask why he kept saving the life of the man that was assigned to put him in prison.  He told her that it was all about the chase, that Peter getting hurt or killed was never part of the plans. That he didn’t work that way.  Neal told her this as he was staring at the floor, uncomfortable in his humility.  She adored him for it.

She takes the photo and moves to the dining table, pen poised over a blank canvas.  She smiles at the idea that its recipient would appreciate the imagery more than most.

She remembers that first real meeting, and the way Neal’s eyes widened slightly as she opened the door, clearly surprised at the immediacy of the introduction.   She remembers how he stood there in the doorway, smiling comfortably and, sensing her unease, making not the slightest suggestion he should be let into the house.  She teases Neal now and again about that moment, and the fact that his entrance into the Burke house, and their lives, really, was decided by the most discriminating member of the Burke household.  As she momentarily debated whether or not to ask Neal to have a seat in the foyer, Satch suddenly appeared, laying his favorite toy across the threshold at Neal’s feet.  Mailmen, cable installers, and their backyard gardner were all subject to the wrath of Satch, but, much like her husband, he seemed to have a giant soft spot for brilliant con artists.  She had realized at that moment, the battle was likely lost and showed Neal into the living room. 

She thinks about the photo in her hands, and what it represents.  In a flowery script that, Neal once commented, deserved only the finest ornate quill pens, she writes:

 _“I sleep more soundly knowing you’re in the picture, now and always.  Keep him safe._

 _All my love,_

 _Elizabeth”  
_


End file.
